106
Muhammad Asad
QURAYSH
THE HUNDRED-SIXTH SURAH
Total Verses: 4
Introduction
ACCORDING to some of
the Companions of the Prophet and several learned men of the next generation,
this surah and the preceding one form, in fact, one entity. Thus, in the
Qur'an-copy owned by Ubayy ibn Ka’b, Al-Fil and Quraysh were
written as one surah, i.e., without the customary invocation "In
the name of God" intervening between them (Baghawi
and Zamakhshari). We must remember that side by side
with Zayd ibn Thabit and Ali ibn Abi Talib, Ubayy
ibn Ka'b was one of the
foremost authorities on whom both Abu Bakr and Uthman
relied for the final recension of the text of the Qur'an; and it is probably for this reason that Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
regards the evidence of Ubayy's Qur'an-copy
as fairly conclusive (Fath al-Bari
VIII, 593). Moreover, it is established that, when leading the
congregational prayer, Umar ibn
al-Khattab used to recite the two surahs
as one (Zamakhshari and Razi).
But whether Al-Fil and Quraysh
are one surah or two separate ones, there is hardly any doubt that
the latter is a continuation of the former, implying that God destroyed the
Army of the Elephant "so that the Quraysh might
remain secure" (see verse 1 below and the corresponding note).
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) SO THAT the Quraysh might
remain secure, 1
(2) secure in their winter and
summer journeys, 2
(3) Let them, therefore, worship the Sustainer of this
(4) who has given them food against
hunger, and made them safe from danger. 4
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1 Lit.,
"for the safeguarding of the Quraysh",
i.e., as the custodians of the Kabah and the tribe in the midst of which the
Last Prophet, Muhammad, was to appear.
Thus, the "security of the Quraysh" is a
metonym for the security of the Kabah, the focal point of the Faith based on the
concept of God's oneness, for the sake of which the army of Abrahah
was destroyed (see introductory note as well as preceding surah).
2 I.e., the two annual trade
caravans - to the
3 I.e., the
Kabah (see note 102 on 2:125).
4 Cf. Abraham's
prayer, "O my Sustainer! Make this
a land secure, and grant its people fruitful sustenance" (2:126).